Experiments
by Akikazemoon
Summary: The government gathers together a group of people with strange powers that they are not yet aware of. Will they be able to resist the government's will? Or will they become human weapons? About the Org. XIII, it has OCs and there is romance later on.
1. Arrival

This is my first fan fiction, so please be kind! Read and review, please! Seven OCs and Roxés belongs to Zexionsgirl6 and Caelix belongs to Coheed17. If there are any ideas on how I can improve my writing, I'll welcome them! By the way, as in all my other stories, if for some reason the site bolded and underlined it, please it ignore that. I'm sorry, I don't mean for it to happen, it just does. _ Anyway, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Kingdom Hearts or anything having to do with Kingdom Hearts. If I did…*thinking about what changes I would make*…more Axel time. :3

Chapter One

It was unheard of. And people hated anything that was not normal. They naturally feared it, and avoided it. It had been the case with a select few people. For some reason, they had received unnatural abilities, although they were small and difficult to control. They didn't want to be shunned from society, so they kept their powers a secret. But it wasn't long before the government caught wind of these people. Although they were regarded as monsters and outcasts by the rest of the world, the government saw it as a perfect opportunity.

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The rooms were quiet. They were almost all white and gray, and everyone inside was silent, sitting on benches around the edges. There were separate rooms, one for girls, and one for boys. None of the twenty or so people knew each other, they simply sat and wondered why they were there. There were two doors in the room, each snow white, matching the walls. One of the girls looked around nervously. The occupants of one room could see the people in the other through a glass divider. As for how each of the people was taking the situation, some were scared, other confused, and others serious. There was a clock on each side, ticking away. All was silent but that ticking. Suddenly, the glass wall started to descend into the floor, and the people sitting up against it were forced to move. The two rooms had been combined into one. And at that moment, a single man walked in. He was wearing normal enough looking clothes with a medical coat over it, but still had an air of foreboding about him. He cleared his throat and pushed his brown hair out of his face.

"I suppose you're wondering why you're here. After all, being brought here suddenly, without anyone you actually know, would be pretty shocking." He received glares from a few of the people around the room.

"Hell right…" came a mutter, although nobody could tell who had said it. The man ignored it.

"Now, you've all realized that you're…different. Correct? Different in many ways from the rest of society. That's why we've gathered you here. We're here to…cure you of this problem." There were murmurs around the room at this.

"Cure…how?" asked one man with long black hair in what looked to be dreadlocks who was sitting towards the front of the group.

"All it is…it's only a simple injection, of course!" the man in the medical coat smiled. His smile looked reassuring to some, but fake to others.

"I don't like shots…" one of the teenage boys, a blonde, mumbled almost incoherently, as if he didn't really want to be heard.

"Just a poke," the man speaking to them had heard him speak. "It won't hurt at all." Everyone seemed unsure. They weren't quite sure of what to do.

"Also…" the man's smile disappeared. "If you refuse to the shot, we can't let you leave, you know. We wouldn't want the society to fall apart. People don't like what isn't normal. Just a small shot, and you could be just like everyone else. Whereas refusing to the treatment means that you would of course have to stay here." Many of the room's occupants looked around uneasily.

"So," the man walked through the group of people over to the other side of the room, where the other door, which had been previously locked slid open easily. "Who's going to be first?" The room was silent. "Oh!" the man said as if he had just remembered something. "I had forgotten…you each need to sign this contract." He pulled some papers off a shelf that was inside the newly opened room. "It's just information about the shots, nothing big." He walked around slowly, handing one sheet of paper to each person, along with a pen or pencil for each as well. Some of them took the time to try to read it, while others signed it immediately, just wanting to get out of there. But in the end, everyone signed it.

"Thank you," the man said as he took back the last of the papers. He placed them back on the shelf that they had come from. "Alright, now that that's done with, who will be first for the injection?" Nobody answered. Some were still suspicious, while others just didn't want injections. Either way, he wasn't going to get any takers. "Alright then." He took the arm of the nearest girl, a teenager with brown hair, but a shock of blue in her bangs. "Let's go." He walked into the new room with her, and the door slid closed again.

"What's your name?" the man asked.

"…Roxés," the girl answered hesitantly.

"I'm Aldis," the man replied. "And don't be worried. You're in good hands." Roxés wasn't even close to believing that. "Just over here…" Aldis led Roxés over to a chair. A nurse walked up and put a tray of medical tools down on the nearby table, one of which Roxés noticed was a very large needle filled with a strange looking liquid.

"Uh…what exactly is that?" Roxés asked warily, preparing herself to jump up from the chair and make a break for it if she needed to.

"Like I said before," Aldis replied, "it's just going to neutralize your special abilities." Roxés still had no idea what he meant when he said "special abilities". She had noticed some strange things happening, but nothing calling for anything like this.

"And trust me," Aldis continued. "It won't hurt a bit. It's just like a regular shot."

"Alright…" Roxés said, although she still didn't really trust it. Her instincts were screaming at her to run, but the door had closed behind them, and was probably locked. She looked around for another exit, and sighted another door. But that door might lead farther inside. There was no way of telling. The nurse was preparing the injection.

"Uh…are you sure about this?" Roxés asked as the nurse walked over. "Has it been tested?"

"Don't worry," the nurse said. "I'm going to do it now." The nurse quickly poked the needle into the skin Roxés's lower right arm. Now, Roxés had been expecting at least a little pain, but the injection really hurt! She was surprised by how much it stung, even after the needle had been withdrawn.

"See? That wasn't so bad, now was it?" the nurse smiled, part of her jet black hair resting on her shoulders.

"Um…well, it hurt more than a regular shot," Roxés commented as she stood up.

"Now, just go through that door over there," Aldis indicated the door that Roxés had noticed earlier, which opened up just as he indicated towards it for some reason. "Everyone else will come through soon."

"Okay…" Roxés walked through the door into the new room. This one wasn't as empty as the last. There were some couches and tables, and she sat down on one of the couches. Her arm felt strange. It still hurt, and she could feel her pulse pounding strongly where the shot had gone in without even touching it. She shook her head and decided to try to distract herself with something else. There wasn't really anything to look at in the room, so she leaned back in the chair and tried to think of something else. It wasn't very long until another girl entered the room. She had dark teal colored hair tied back in a long ponytail. She was also looking at her arm, a confused look on her face.

"You're arm feels weird too?" Roxés asked. The girl turned to her.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, it does. Like, the weird pulse feeling?" the other girl replied.

"Yeah," Roxés nodded. "I really have a bad feeling about this…"

"It's not like we had a choice in it, though," the other girl sat on the couch to the right of the one Roxés was on. "By the way, my name's Shixam. What about you?"

"I'm Roxés."

"Okay. Sooo where'd they grab you from?"

"Hm?" Roxés looked at Shixam questioningly.

"I mean, where'd they find you before they brought you here?" Shixam elaborated.

"Oh. I was on my way back to my house from school," Roxés replied.

"I was in the grocery store," Shixam rolled her eyes and smiled half heartedly. "They just grabbed me and dragged me out. I had to leave the things I was buying, too."

"Geez. Didn't they make a scene? Wouldn't someone have noticed?" Roxés asked.

"It was a pretty small store. I don't know about the cashier, though," Shixam shrugged. Roxés's arm suddenly started hurting again. She looked down at it momentarily.

"Does it hurt?" Shixam asked. "I haven't felt that part yet I guess, since I was after you." At that moment, another person walked in. It was the blonde haired boy from before who had mentioned that he didn't like shots.

"Hi," Shixam said as he sat down on another couch that was around the table.

"Hi," he answered.

"Uh…so what's your name?" Roxés asked, trying to start a conversation.

"Oh, sorry!" he said quickly. "I was distracted by my arm hurting. My name is Demyx!"

"Okay, I'm Roxés."

"And I'm Shixam," Shixam added. They were silent for a while, trying to think of what to say.

"Uh…so…do you guys know why we're here?" Demyx asked. "Cause I have no idea."

"Nope," Shixam said as Roxés shook her head. Two more people walked into the room, almost at the same time. It was two men, one with blonde hair, and the other with black hair that was streaked with silver, and he also sported an eye patch. The two of them went over to a different table, not bothering to acknowledge the three teens. They spoke quietly, probably not wanting the teens prying.

"Ow," Shixam looked down at her arm. "Mine's starting to hurt now."

"Yeah…" Roxés looked down at her own arm. The tingling pain was starting to travel up towards her shoulder, slowly but surely. More people were walking in. A quiet teenager with slate colored hair sat down in a armchair that was by itself and started reading a book. Roxés was going to go try to talk to him when she was suddenly interrupted.

"Hey!" another teenage boy plopped down on an armchair that was across from Roxés's couch. He seemed to really be at ease, and not phased by what was happening. "Name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

"Sure," Shixam laughed a little. Roxés turned toward him to notice wonderingly that his hair was fiery red and seemed to defy gravity. A man and woman walked in the door, the woman with short blonde hair and the man with long pink hair. Another teenage girl with long pink hair walked halfway towards their group, but then changed her mind and walked off to sit by herself. Roxés turned back to her group to see that everyone was introducing themselves to Axel.

"I'm Roxés," she said when it came to be her turn.

"So, this is pretty weird, huh?" Axel scanned the room. "Just who are these guys anyway?"

"If I knew I'd tell you," Shixam shrugged.

"At least we're all not alone in this," Demyx smiled. A few more people walked in, and a girl with longish brown hair came and stood by their table.

"Can I sit down?" she asked.

"Sure!" Shixam scooted over on her couch.

"I'm Caelix," the new girl introduced herself. As everyone went through their introductions again, Roxés stood up. She wanted to try to talk to that boy again. She walked over to the chair where he was sitting. She stood there, but he didn't seem to notice her, as he was absorbed in his book.

"Hi," Roxés said hesitantly.

"Hm?" the boy looked up from his book. After a few seconds, he judged that Roxés probably wouldn't be one of those really annoying people, and he hoped he was right. "Hello."

"What's your name?"

"Zexion. What's yours?"

"Roxés," Roxés smiled, glad that she had been able to start a conversation. "Why don't you come sit with us?" Zexion looked over at the table that Roxés had previously been sitting at. It had gained a new person as well. And on another note, it had also gotten quite boisterous and loud.

"Sorry, but I'd prefer somewhere quieter," he gave her a half smile. "Maybe next time?" As long as he was going to get to know these people, he should at least be friendly, he thought.

"Okay," Roxés nodded. "Aren't you lonely over here?"

"No, whenever I have a good book, I don't feel lonely at all."

"So, you like to read a lot?"

"Yes, I do."

"Really? Me too!" Roxés was glad that she had been able to find something in common with him. "That's a pretty big book, though."

"Oh…it's a lexicon," he said.

"You're reading a lexicon?"

"Well, it's all I really had time to grab before they dragged me here," he admitted.

"Hey, Roxés!" Roxés suddenly heard Shixam shout back at the table. "We've got some new people for you to meet!" Roxés started to leave but then turned back towards Zexion.

"I'll see you later, then," she smiled. He smiled and nodded, then turned back to his book. Roxés walked back over to the table to see that there were at least three new people there.

"How are people coming in so fast?" Roxés said to herself as she arrived back at the group. She noticed that somebody was sitting in her place. She stared at the boy bluntly for a moment.

"…Oh! Am I sitting in your spot?" he asked. "Here," he moved over to the other side of the couch and Roxés sat down with an apologetic smile. "By the way…" the boy continued. "My name is Soriox. You're Roxés, right? Nice to meet you!"

"Yeah, nice to meet you too," Roxés replied.

"I'm Roxas," said a young blonde boy who was sitting next to Demyx at this point. Demyx must have scooted over to make room for him. "Weird, our names are pretty similar, aren't they?"

"I guess so," Roxés nodded. She noticed another teenage boy standing near the group, but not in it, as if he was hesitant to be around a lot of people. He had black hair with red streaks in it and dark purple eyes.

"Hey there," another boy pulled up a foot rest-like chair in between Roxés's couch and Shixam's couch without warning. "I'm Matrix."

"Whoa, that name's awesome! Like the movie!" Shixam grinned. Matrix smiled and nodded. The room was steadily getting louder, and it seemed that everyone was getting a bit more comfortable and talking. Roxés saw one more person, a man with long silver hair and tan skin, walk into the room. She looked around the room and counted the people. There were twenty in there in all. She must have missed some of them coming in when she had been talking to Zexion. She turned to look over at him for a moment, and he was still reading. Then, she turned back to everyone else around the table. Just then, Aldis walked into the room with the black haired nurse that had been with him before. Roxés noticed that Aldis was now wearing glasses. As everyone in the room noticed him, the voices fell silent. The only noise heard was that of Zexion closing his book.

"Well, then, now you've all gotten your injections," Aldis said. "That wasn't so hard, was it?" Some of the people looked down at their arms hesitantly. Roxés had been distracted by all the talking before, and only just now did she realized that her arm was hurting more than it had before. Some of the other people looked uncomfortable as well.

"Now, then let me show you all to your rooms--" Aldis was saying.

"Wait a second!" the man with the eye patch cut him off, standing up. "Our rooms? You never said we had to stay here!"

"I never said you could leave either, did I?" Aldis asked.

"You…You tricked us!"

"Well, Xigbar, you might have taken the time to read your contract, which you signed," Aldis's glasses flashed in the light. The man with the eye patch, apparently named Xigbar, suddenly looked as if he regretted his decision.

"By the way, this is Verity," Aldis mentioned to the nurse besides him. "She'll show the girls to their rooms, while I'll show the boys to their rooms. Is everyone ready?" Everyone stood up, some more hesitant than others. Another door, which seemingly nobody had noticed, opened up on the other side of the room. Everyone walked through it, with Aldis and Verity in the lead. They walked for a while, and then came to a hallway lined with doors.

"This way, ladies," Verity said as she went to the right. "Girls have their rooms on the right end of the hallway, and boys have their rooms on the left end of the hallway." As the girls followed Verity down towards their side of the hallway, Roxés saw Shixam walking next to her, and decided that they should probably stick together if they had to run suddenly. Also, Roxés was surprised by the fact that out of the twenty people, only five of them were girls. The other fifteen were all boys, of varying ages. Roxés noticed that the oldest of the girls was the blonde haired woman she had seen before. Although Roxés would have tried talking to the woman, she held a "don't mess with me" feeling about her, and Roxés decided against it.

"Alright," Verity stopped at one of the doors. "Since there's five of you, one of you gets a room by themselves, and the others will be in pairs. Who'll be by themself?"

"I will," the blonde haired woman said before anyone else could. "I don't want a room with any of these kids," she added under her breath.

"Alright, Larxene, you'll get the single person room," Verity opened the door for her. Roxés thought about who she would want for a roommate. It would have to be somebody she could trust. Definitely not the pink haired girl, the two of them hadn't even spoken to each other. And even though she had spoken to Caelix, it really hadn't been much, just an introduction. That left Shixam. And Roxés thought that being in a room with Shixam would be a good idea. The two of them had talked for a while, and Shixam seemed trustworthy.

"Uh…Verity?" Roxés said as Verity opened the next door. "Could I be in a room with Shixam?" Shixam looked at her questioningly but seemed okay with it.

"Of course," Verity said. "Okay, then, Roxxy and Caelix will be in this room." Well, Roxés had found out the names of a few other people. That was a start. Roxxy walked into the room, followed by Caelix, who waved to Roxés and Shixam as she went in. Verity walked over to the room on the end and opened the door.

"And this will be your room," she said. Roxés and Shixam walked inside. "If you need anything, you can call somebody with this phone here," Verity pointed to a phone on the wall. "And also, a few of your things will be brought here soon, like clothes, books, that sort of thing. You can also request anything you want to be brought. Anyway, I need to go now. Bye!" And with that, Verity left the door frame. Shixam walked over and closed the door.

"Sooo…" Shixam sat down on one of the beds. Roxés looked around the room a little. There were two beds, both of them identical. There were also identical dressers on either side of the room, and there was a shared bedside table between the two beds, which held a lamp on it and had a few shelves. The wall was painted white and empty except for a single mirror hanging there. The carpet on the floor was a dull gray color. Roxés hated the décor of the room immediately. They would have to redecorate at one point.

"What now?" Shixam finished her prolonged sentence. "I mean…why do you think they brought us here in the first place? I know that we all…can do things that other people couldn't, but who cares? It's barely noticeable!"

"What happens with you?" Roxés asked.

"Weird things happen when I touch metal," Shixam replied. "What about you?"

"I'm not really sure…" Roxés said. "But…strange things do happen to the people and things around me, and just randomly at that. It's hard to explain. Hm…do you know what time it is?"

"Nope," Shixam said. "Is there a clock in here…?" The two of them looked around until they found a clock on a shelf. It read ten thirty at night. "Wow, that late already? We should get some sleep, I guess."

"Yeah," Roxés agreed.

"Well, I guess this is my bed," Shixam said, pulling her legs up onto the bed she had been sitting on the edge of.

"Okay, I'll take the other one," Roxés stood up and went to go turn off the light. "Good night." She flicked the light off. It went almost pitch black, but for the light from the hallway coming in from under the door.

"Good night," she heard Shixam say. Roxés finally managed to find her bed and she lay down on it. She still wasn't exactly sure of why they were there and what the injections would do to them, but there wasn't anything she could do about it at the moment. And so, with those thoughts still lingering in her mind, she reluctantly slipped off into a restless sleep.


	2. Curiosities

Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate it, considering this is my first story.^^ Anyway, without further ado, here is the second chapter!

Disclaimer: I still don't own Kingdom Hearts! Nothing has changed. :3

Chapter Two

Roxés woke up the next morning feeling at least a little refreshed. She could tell that Shixam was still asleep by her quiet breathing. There was a little light streaming in through the two windows that Roxés hadn't noticed when the two of them had first gone in there. She also noticed that there were two folded up brochure like things on the bedside tables. She unfolded hers to find a map.

"Hm…" she got out of bed. "Maybe I can go get some breakfast…" she opened the door, then went outside, and shut it quietly. The hall was still lit, just as it had been before. Just as she was about to take another look at her map, though, she heard shouting from down the hall suddenly. It went on for a few more seconds, and she went to go see what it was. The door that the shouting was coming from was slightly open, and she looked inside. She was surprised to see the corner of the bed sheets of a top bunk on lit up in flames.

"What happened?!" Demyx was shouting.

"I don't know, I just woke up and it was like that!" Axel shouted back. Axel was still on the top bunk, as far away from the fire as he could get. Demyx was running around the room in a frenzy trying to find something to put it out with. Roxés also saw that Zexion was over at the side of the room, trying to think of what to do.

"H-Hey!" Roxés came inside. "Do you guys need some help?!"

"Do you know where a fire extinguisher is?" Axel called from the top bunk.

"I have a map!" Roxés opened up the map quickly.

"Really? Let me see!" Demyx started to jog over to where Roxés was, but tripped in his hurry. His arm shot out automatically to catch himself on something, but what he grabbed onto was the burning part of the sheet.

"Demyx!" Roxés shouted. But to everyone's surprise, Demyx didn't make any noise of pain. He stayed where he was for a second, but then pulled himself up slowly, still holding onto the corner of the sheet. He dropped the corner of the sheet and was surprised to see that it was damp, and the fire was completely gone.

"What the…did you get burned at all?" Axel asked, now coming over to the edge of the bed.

"No," Demyx said in a surprised voice, holding up his hands for everyone to see. They were perfectly fine. "What…how…why didn't I get burned? And the fire went out!"

"And the sheet is damp…" Zexion walked over and examined the sheet up close. "It's as if your hand gave off water…"

"But that's impossible," Axel shook his head.

"Just as impossible as you waking up with a burning bed?" Zexion raised an eyebrow and looked up at Axel. "Exactly what could have set off that fire? It was out of reach of anything except you."

"But…" Axel was confused and trailed off.

"Something strange is going on here…" Zexion couldn't come up with a logical explanation.

"Hey…" they turned to see Shixam at the door, looking as if she had just woken up. "I heard you guys shouting. What's goin' on?"

"Nothing, nothing," Roxés replied.

"Okay," Shixam smiled. "Wanna go get some breakfast?"

"Sure."

"Let's all go," Demyx said, now smiling again. "I'm starving!" Roxés noted that nothing could keep Demyx down for long.

"Yeah, let's go…" Axel jumped down from the bed, still looking unsure of what had just happened. And so, all of them went to the room where everyone would have breakfast. When they went in, Caelix was in there already.

"Good morning," she smiled.

"Wow, you sure got up early," Shixam noted, seeing that she was already done with breakfast.

"Well, I usually get up early anyways," Caelix replied. All of them sat down at the table that Caelix was at.

"Hey…" Roxés turned to Caelix, "did anything weird happen last night?"

"Weird? Uh…no, I don't think so," Caelix shrugged as she thought. "Oh, but you know, I was wanting it to be a sunny day, and it is sunny! Do you think we'll be allowed to go outside?"

"You're taking this very well, aren't you?" Shixam asked.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that we'll get out of here sooner or later," Caelix replied. Soon enough, the cafeteria-like room began to fill up, and the group they had been in yesterday began to reform. After they had been talking for a while, Soriox looked around.

"Hey, where's the food anyway?" he asked. The rest of them paused and looked around as well.

"Oh, there it is," Matrix said, sighting the black haired boy from the previous day getting a plate from an alcove in the wall. He stood up to go get some breakfast. The rest of them followed suit, and soon, all of them had food. Suddenly, the door opened, and Aldis walked in with Verity behind him. The room fell silent, all of the occupants looking over to him.

"So, I hope you all slept well?" he asked, giving an amiable smile that nobody seemed to believe. He waited a moment for a response, which he didn't receive, and then continued. "Anyway, I assume that you all picked up your maps? Now, just to let you know, it will take a little while for the vaccine to take affect, so you'll be staying here for a little while longer." There were a few grumbles, but Aldis ignored them. "Now, the areas in the map that are colored in blue are ones where you can go freely. The ones in green are the ones that are only open at specific times. And as for the red areas…you are never allowed to go there. Am I clear? Those areas are strictly off limits."

"That just makes me want to sneak in more," Axel snickered quietly.

"Are we allowed to go outside?" Caelix asked.

"Oh, of course," Aldis said. "You'll find the door on your maps." Aldis checked his watch quickly. "Well, I need to go. So remember, don't go into the red areas. Try to get to know the places you can go to. And trust me," He turned to face everyone, a smile on his face, but his eyes were of ice, "if you don't do anything you aren't supposed to do, you'll be out of here in no time." He walked out of the room.

"My turn to talk to you all," Verity smiled and walked forward. "As you all seemed to have figured out, every day, there will be food waiting for you in that alcove during the proper eating times, and any snacks can be found through that door over there," she indicated each place in turn. "Also, each night, from now on, there is going to be a ten thirty curfew and lights out at eleven." More grumbles resounded through the room again, but Verity ignored them, just as Aldis had done. "Hm…and, there are a few other rules, and we'll tell you them later. Anyway, later today, some of your clothes will be delivered here and you can change. Later on, you can ask me or Aldis about anything else you might want brought. And lastly, there are a few other scientists here who you might run into, so by all means, introduce yourself. After all, we don't know how long you'll be here. Well, that's it. Bye." She smiled, turned and left.

"They don't know how long we'll be here? I don't like the sound of that," Matrix said.

"Anyway, as long as we're here, do you want to go outside?" Caelix asked. Demyx seemed to think about something for a moment.

"Is there a pond or something outside?" he asked.

"Hm…" Roxés opened her map and looked at it carefully, scanning the outside area. "Yeah, it does look like there's a pond out there. It looks pretty big, too."

"Great!" Demyx stood up enthusiastically. "Let's go!" he started off towards the door.

"Why is he so excited about a pond?" Shixam asked Roxés. Roxés's mind wandered back to that morning when water had seemingly come out of Demyx's hand.

_That must be what he wants to check out,_ Roxés thought. She really wanted to know if he had really made water in his hand as well.

"Alright, let's go!" she stood up. The group that followed behind the two of them consisted of Axel, who said that he just wanted to get outside, Shixam, who wanted to get outside as well, Zexion, who wanted to find a good place to read, Caelix, who wanted to get a look around, Matrix and Soriox, who wanted to know what the big deal about the pond was, and the black haired boy, who trailed behind and didn't really talk to anybody. Roxés was still wondering what his name was, so she fell behind to talk to him.

"Hi," she said. He was quiet. She saw that she would have to spark the conversation somehow. "Um…so, what's your name?"

"Xavier," he answered simply as he continued walking.

"I'm Roxés."

"Nice to meet you." The two of them were quiet. Roxés saw that the conversation wasn't getting anywhere, so she waved weakly at Xavier and then joined Demyx at the head of the group.

"Do you want to go to the pond because of what happened this morning?" she whispered to him. He nodded.

"I want to know what's going on," he whispered back. "There's something weird going one with me and water. Things like this have happened before, but never like this morning. I think that the pond could help me see what's happening. After all, there's plenty of water in it." They soon reached the door, and when they pulled it open, the light flooded in on them. They blinked to try to get used to the sudden change in light. After all, all of them had been in artificial light for so long, the sun was a little bit of a shock.

"Ah, finally, outside!" Shixam stretched. "And we're lucky it isn't raining!"

"Hey, so, where's that pond again?" Demyx asked Caelix, who looked at her map.

"It's…right over there," Caelix pointed. "Just go around the corner."

"Alright, thanks!" Demyx ran around the corner, and Roxés quickly followed him. Shixam followed them as well, curious. Axel and Zexion trailed behind, wanting to see the result of what they had guessed would be Demyx's experiment. Demyx kneeled down by the edge of the water. Soriox and Matrix peeked at the group around the corner, hoping not to be caught spying. Whereas, Xavier and Caelix both seemed to have walked off somewhere. Demyx rolled up his sleeves and put his hands in the water, his face expectant. Nothing happened.

"Come on, water, move…" he willed it. Still nothing.

"Maybe…" Zexion said, "if water did come out of your hands, then maybe it's only activated if you're in danger?"

"Hm…yeah, maybe," Demyx stood up again, wiping his hands on his pants. "Or maybe if I really really try, then something will happen. Like, really focus--"

"Water came out of your hands?" Soriox asked, his curiosity overcoming him. The rest of them turned around to look at the two peeking around the corner.

"You just blew our cover…" Matrix grumbled.

"Uh…how long have you guys been there?" Shixam asked. "And wait a second…your hands gave off water!?"

"Long story," Demyx sighed. "This morning we woke up, and Axel's bed was on fire…"

"Axel's bed was on fire?!" Matrix said incredulously.

"Uh…yeah."

"What set it off?"

"We don't know," Zexion explained a bit.

"Honestly, I just woke up and it was like that," Axel shrugged.

"Anyway," Demyx continued. "Roxés came in, and I was running over to her and I tripped and grabbed the sheet. The fire went out when I grabbed it, and after I let go, the sheet was wet.

"Weird…" Soriox frowned. "I wonder what happened."

"Yet another unexplained happening," Matrix said, shaking his head. "Think it was ghosts or something?"

"Uh…not really…" Roxés smiled apologetically.

"Whatever it was," Zexion said, "The most probably explanation was that water came out of Demyx's hands. Even though that's pretty unbelievable to begin with."

"Wait a second," Shixam said. "Remember? That guy…uh…Aldis! He said that we have strange abilities or something, right? Maybe you've got power over water or something!"

"This isn't a comic book…" Axel said. "Nothing like that could happen."

"Axel, no matter how many times you deny it, there's no other explanation," Zexion objected. "Besides, how do we know that YOU didn't start the fire?"

"Why would I start a fire?!" Axel shouted.

"Shh! Don't let anyone else hear!" Zexion looked over at a few other people, who had spared them a glance from afar. "I didn't mean purposefully. All I meant was that maybe, if Demyx makes water do strange things, then maybe you affect fire."

"I still don't buy it," Axel shook his head. "I mean, I'd like to believe it. Power over fire…that'd be awesome. But still, we can't just think that it's true. What if it's not? Then what?"

"Why else would we be here…?" Zexion murmured, seeming to have just had an epiphany. "Aldis said something about strange abilities. A fire starts on your bed for no reason, and Demyx puts it out with water that supposedly came out of his hand. All of that, and just the fact that they're making us stay here, along with that injection…what other conclusion can we make?"

"So you're saying that we really do have strange powers?" Roxés asked.

"Exactly," Zexion concluded. "Everyone here must have one."

"Me too?" Soriox asked.

"And me?" Matrix said excitedly. "Wow, that's awesome!"

"I'm going to try again," Demyx said, kneeling down by the water once more. He put his hands into the pond, and stayed there for a while. Suddenly, there was a small splash, although nobody saw the water move or could tell which part of the pond the sound had come from.

"I did it!" Demyx exclaimed. "I made it move!"

"I didn't see anything, though," Axel said.

"But I still moved it a little bit," Demyx stood up smiling. "That's a start!"

"Hey…listen, everyone," Zexion said quietly, motioning the group to come closer. "We absolutely cannot tell Aldis and Verity about this discovery."

"Of course not," Shixam nodded.

"And also…keep it a secret from the others here until either they figure it out on their own, or you can completely trust them," Zexion added.

"Right," the group agreed to the terms.

"Um…sorry," Caelix suddenly came around the corner, slowly followed by Xavier. "I was…eavesdropping. After I heard Axel yelling I got a bit worried, and asked Xavier about it and he didn't know, so we both came over to see what was wrong…we didn't mean to butt in…"

"No, don't worry! We can trust you," Demyx grinned.

"Okay," Caelix smiled a little. "All of this is a bit hard to believe, isn't it?"

"It sure is," Axel nodded. "But…I guess we're going to have to believe it. There isn't really any other way to explain what's going on, is there?"

"You'll keep it a secret as well, won't you, Caelix?" Zexion asked.

"Of course I will!" Caelix said. "We all can. And maybe, after a little while, we can figure something more out about it."

"Right," Roxés nodded.

"Anyway…" Zexion said. "Everyone, try to do a little investigating. There's a library here, so that's where I'm headed. I'll see what I can find out."

"I'll come with you," Caelix said. "It'll be easier to find things out if there's more than one of us."

"I'll come too," Matrix said. "I'm pretty good at library investigation."

"I guess I'll come too," Soriox shrugged. "I'm not really a bookish person, but I'll try."

"I have to do something else, but I'll join you in the library once I'm finished," Xavier said.

"Okay, let's go," Zexion said. He turned to the rest of the group. "We'll see you guys later. We can meet in my room at say…ten o' clock? That way we'll have a half an hour to talk about it."

"Sure," Roxés agreed. "And we'll do what we can to find stuff out, too."

"Thanks," Zexion nodded in acknowledgement as he and the other four in his group walked back towards the building.

"Hey, can I see that map?" Axel turned to Roxés suddenly.

"Uh, sure," she handed the folded map to him. He unfolded it and looked it over. Demyx walked over next to him and looked at the map as well.

"How about we look here?" Axel asked, now smiling.

"There? But they said--" Demyx started to talk.

"We can go where we want, Demyx," Axel replied.

"What? Where?" Shixam asked.

"Yeah, where are you guys planning on going? Roxés inquired.

"We aren't going alone," Axel said. "You and Shixam are coming with us."

"But where?" Roxés persisted.

"Well…" Axel grinned. "We're sneaking into the restricted area!"


	3. Thoughts

Wow, it's the third chapter already! Things are going pretty quickly… :3 Thanks to everyone who reviewed! By the way…in the future I will have openings for a few more OCs, but not yet. I'll tell you when to start asking, but if you're interested in your OC getting into the story, I do have a few openings for later on. And here's hoping that Fanfiction hasn't gone and made it all underlined again… ^^; Anyway, disclaimer time!

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or anything having to do with Kingdom Hearts! I only own the OCs and the plot.^^

Chapter Three

"Should we be doing this…?" Demyx asked.

"Well, duh," Axel said. "It's uh…investigation for the sake of knowledge. Yeah." The four of them were now walking down the hallway.

"What do you think would happen if we got caught?" Shixam wondered aloud.

"Nothing good, that's for sure," Roxés replied. "I really don't think we should do this. Why can't we just go to the library with everyone else?"

"They've got plenty of people there," Axel waved off the comment. "And plus, I bet we'll find out better stuff this way than from looking through dusty old books."

"We're going to get caught," Roxés insisted in an almost sing-song voice.

"No we're not," Axel replied in the same tone. "Now, let's see…" He took another look at the map. "This way." He took a left, and the rest of the group followed him. Sure enough, the soon came to a large, metal door. They realized that you needed a card key to open it.

"Oh well, we can't get in. Too bad," Shixam shrugged, hoping that they could go back.

"I'm not giving up that easy," Axel replied. He looked around. Soon enough, he sighted an air vent in the wall. "Aha…"

"Wait. You aren't planning on crawling through that like in the movies, are you?" Roxés asked bluntly.

"Of course I am," Axel smiled.

"It looks kind of small…" Demyx observed. "Won't you get stuck?"

"True, true," Axel nodded. "Which one of us here is the smallest?" All in sync, they turned to Shixam. Shixam looked at them in surprise.

"Oh, no," she shook her head. "If you think that I'm going in there, you've got another thing coming!"

-----

"I can't believe I went in here…" Shixam grumbled as she crawled through the tiny vent. She was a bit angry at being called 'small', but that would have to wait. As she crawled forward, she saw another vent cover in front of her. She went up to it, and peered through. What she saw was surprising, but she had expected it. It was a huge bustling lab, filled with scientists everywhere. She spotted Aldis, but due to all the people talking, she couldn't hear him.

"Hey!" Axel called down the vent. "Did you find anything?" His voice echoed through the metal passage, and to Shixam's horror, out into the lab. It didn't seem like anyone heard it, but she could have sworn that Aldis looked up, staring straight at her as she retreated back into the vent.

"So? How'd it go?" Axel asked her as she came out.

"You're voice echoed into the room," she said irritably. "Aldis saw me too, I think."

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's fine. Anyway, there's a huge lab in there. I didn't really get a chance to see what they were working on, though…" Suddenly, there were voices on the other side of the door.

"They're coming!" Demyx whispered. "Quick, let's run!" All of them quickly ran down the corridor, dashing down the hallway towards the library at full speed. But…there was something that they had forgotten.

-----

"Hm…" Aldis picked up the discarded vent cover. "So, someone is snooping around already, hm? I'd better look into this."

-----

When all of them got to the library, they were all quite out of breath.

"So…now do you still think it was a good idea to try to sneak into there?" Roxés asked.

"Sneak into where?" Zexion asked. The four of them hadn't realized just how close Zexion had been standing to them. "Have you been sneaking around in places that you shouldn't?"

"Nope," Axel shook his head. "Why?"

"Roxés just said that you snuck into somewhere," Zexion pointed out.

"No, no, no, Zexion, this is a big misunderstanding!" Axel gave him a smile. He seemed to be very skilled in the art of lying. "You see, I had an idea to sneak into there, but we all decided against it." Zexion gave him a scrutinizing look for a moment.

"Oh well," Zexion shrugged. "We haven't found anything here yet. Have you guys found anything?"

"Well…we found a lab…" Shixam said. "We saw it through an open door while we were walking down a hallway."

"A lab? Hm. I wonder what they're studying there…" Zexion said quietly as all of them walked over to join the rest of the group. Soriox and Matrix had apparently both given up, as they each sprawled across one of the couches, Matrix hanging off the end upside down. Caelix was looking through a book, and Roxés noticed that Xavier had joined in the library investigation as well.

"Huh?" Matrix sat up a bit when he saw them coming in. "Weren't we supposed to meet you guys at ten?"

"We finished early," Demyx shrugged. "How are you guys doing?"

"It's no good," Matrix replied. "They've got nothing here on the building itself."

"Almost as if they were worried that we would search for the information," Zexion added.

"Do you think maybe we should ask some of the other people they brought here?" Soriox asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Caelix turned around from the bookshelf she was searching.

"He does have a point," Xavier spoke up, also turning around. "After all, they might have not told us because they thought we were too young to hear it."

"So, you're saying that maybe some of the adults know?" Roxés asked.

"Yeah, maybe they do!" Axel nodded. "They never trust people our age anyway."

"So, who should we ask? We don't know any of the adults," Shixam said.

"Why don't we go outside and see who we can find?" Caelix asked. Her suggestion was agreed on, and they all started outside.

-----

"But who should we ask?" Demyx said once they were all outside. "None of the adults really seem to want anything to do with us."

"And who can we trust…?" Axel looked around warily.

"Hm…" Roxés looked around. The first adults they came upon were the blonde man and the man with the eye patch, Xigbar. They seemed a bit intimidating, so the group of teens moved on, looking for someone else. Next, they came to the pink haired man and the blonde woman.

"Should we ask them?" Soriox whispered to the group.

"Oh, hell no," Matrix shook his head. "They look like the least trustworthy of the bunch." They continued walking, still searching. Next, they came upon an extremely tall man with red hair. Seeing as he loomed over them and seemed very scary indeed, they passed him right on by, no questions asked. Soon, they came to a man with tan skin and dark hair, which was in dreadlocks it seemed, sitting under a tree and reading.

"He looks kind of nice…" Shixam shrugged.

"But can we trust him?" Zexion inquired to the rest of the group. The rest of the group murmured a bit, but the different thoughts couldn't be distinguished from each other.

"I'll go talk to him if you want," Caelix said.

"Are you sure?" Roxés asked.

"Yup. And I'll be careful not to give anything away, either," Caelix smiled before walking over. The rest of the teens watched attentively, grouped together in their clump. Caelix walked casually over to the man sitting under the tree.

"Hi," Caelix said. The man looked up, and looked confused as to why this girl was talking to him.

"Hello," he said hesitantly.

"What are you reading?" Caelix asked. The man held out the book for her to see. "Oh, I love that one!" she sat down in front of him. "Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Caelix. What's yours?"

"Xaldin," the man said. "And…why are you talking to me of all people?"

"I just wanted to get to know everyone better," Caelix smiled. She looked around. "By the way…" her voice dropped to a whisper. "I need to ask you something."

"What?" he also dropped the volume of his voice, concerned that something might be wrong.

"Can you keep a secret?" Caelix asked. Xaldin nodded after a pause. "Okay," Caelix nodded. "Here's the thing…my friends and I think that something weird is going on around here. We were wondering about this place we're in. We wanted to know the history and stuff. But when we looked through the library, we couldn't find any information on it. So we thought that maybe they told only the adults about it. Have you heard anything about it?"

"No," Xaldin shook his head, and Caelix could tell that he was telling the truth. "But that is odd…are you sure you didn't miss anything in the library?"

"Yes, we checked everywhere," Caelix nodded. "So they haven't told all of you anything either?" Xaldin shook his head.

"Strange…" he murmured. "Would you like me to help you search?"

"Really?" Caelix said, excited.

"How about you introduce me to your friends over there?" Xaldin asked, motioning towards the clump of staring teens across the yard.

"Okay," Caelix nodded. The two of them stood up and they walked over.

"Everyone, this is Xaldin," Caelix said. Xaldin got enthusiastic greetings from Demyx and Soriox, who were sure that if Caelix brought him over, that he couldn't be bad. He got normal, friendly greetings from Matrix, Shixam, and Roxés. But Axel, Zexion, and Xavier still didn't seem to trust him very much. Caelix introduced each of her friends in turn, indicating to each one as she did so.

"So…" Xaldin said after the introductions, "you're all having trouble finding out about the building itself?"

"Yeah," Shixam nodded. "We think that they're hiding it from us for a reason."

"Hm…" Xaldin seemed to be thinking. "Well, I think that I'd like to figure this out as well. You might be on the verge of an important discovery. I'll help you in your efforts all I can."

"Really?" Matrix asked. "That'd be great!" It seemed that he now completely trusted Xaldin.

"If at least one of you could meet me out here at this time tomorrow, I could tell you what I found out," Xaldin explained. "Will that be alright?"

"Yeah, that sounds perfect," Caelix replied. "Thanks for helping us out!" Xaldin nodded to them in farewell, then made his way inside.

"He's so nice," Shixam smiled. "He didn't tell us to go away or anything."

"I still don't trust him," Axel grumbled.

"I don't either," Zexion agreed.

"Same here," Xavier said.

"Well, at least we found somebody to help us," Roxés shrugged. "And he does seem pretty nice." That statement didn't seem to make Axel, Zexion, and Xavier trust him any more.

"Oh well," Demyx said, trying to prevent any possibility of an argument. "Why don't we just go inside and talk about our next plan?" Everyone agreed, and they all made their way inside, some a lot more tense than others.


	4. A Little Investigation

Hiii there. ^^…Chapter four! Finally! Phew…anyway…^^ Thanks to all of you who reviewed and favorited this story! I really appreciate it. :D And I've realized something. There are a few stories on Fanfiction that have a plot similar to that of this story. I just want everyone to know that I haven't stolen anybody's stories, okay? That goes for all the stuff I write, and I would never try to steal any of your stories. Such as upside-down-boat's KH story, Cure. It's very similar to this, I've realized. I would never try to steal such a wonderful story! :D I started writing this before I read it. XD Anyway, now that that's cleared up, on with the show!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts in any way, shape, or form. I only own the OCs and the plot. ^^

Another Disclaimer: I'm not stealing upside-down-boat's story, Cure, and all the ideas in this story are purely my own. Nor would I ever try to steal boat's great story! X3 This plot is entirely from my own mind. :)

Chapter Four

When Roxés woke up, it was pouring rain outside. As she sat up, she saw that Shixam was gone, probably already eating breakfast. Glancing out the window, Roxés saw lightning burst into the sky, lighting it up for a moment before it dimmed to gray again. She looked down at herself, a bit disgusted. She hadn't changed since she got there, after all! Deciding to see if their clothes had been delivered yet, she walked over to the dresser on her side of the room and opened it. She sighed in relief when she saw that all her other clothes had been delivered safe and sound, and it looked like all of her old clothes were there. A thought of how they had gotten her clothes in the first place flashed through her mind, but she ignored it as she picked out a new outfit. Since she was alone in there anyway, she locked the already closed door and changed quickly, throwing her old clothes onto her bed. She would have to see where she could get them washed later. She really wanted to shower as well, but she saw that just brushing her hair would have to suffice for now, as she didn't know where the showers were in the building. She went to the bathroom at the end of the hall with her bag that held her tooth brush and tooth paste and things like that, and finished up everything she had to do in there, then walking towards the direction of the dining hall. Suddenly, as she was walking, she bumped into somebody.

"Why hello there, Roxés," Aldis said upon seeing her. This was the last person that Roxés wanted to talk to.

_Did he find out about us trying to sneak into that lab…?_ she thought.

"Hi," she replied, trying to seem as casual as possible.

"Where are you off to?" Aldis asked, adjusting his glasses.

"I was just going to go get some breakfast," she said with a little nervous laugh on the end. She wished with all of her being that she hadn't laughed like that.

"Oh, I see," Aldis nodded. Roxés couldn't tell what he was thinking from his expression. He seemed to be good at hiding his thoughts.

"So they did sneak in…" she suddenly heard his voice and jumped a little.

"W-What?" she said quickly.

"Hm? I didn't say anything," he replied.

"But I thought that I just…heard you say something," she tried not to give anything away.

"I really didn't say anything," he said, looking completely serious about what he said. "Are you feeling alright?" Aldis looked more serious all of a sudden. "The way you're talking is a bit odd, and you seem out of sorts."

"No, I'm fine," she shook her head, desperately wanting to get out of the conversation and over to her friends, who were in the dining room.

"Have strange things happened? Things you can't explain?" he started to sound a bit eager. "Things you couldn't do before?"

"Uh…" Roxés backed up a step.

"Aldis," there was a call from around the corner, and Aldis turned to look as another man came into the hall. He motioned for Aldis to follow him and then went back around the corner silently.

"Ah, right," Aldis adjusted his glasses again, the lights on the ceiling reflecting off them. "Looks like I'm needed right now. Tell me or another staff member if you start feeling sick." And with that, he walked away down the hall. Roxés watched him go for a moment, thinking of what had just happened. Then, she walked into the dining room.

"Ah, she lives! About time you woke up, Roxés!" Matrix called to her, waving. He was the first one to have seen her, and everyone else turned as well. She walked over after getting some food and joined her friends at the table.

"Good morning," she yawned. Everyone else greeted her, and Demyx looked quite enthusiastic that morning.

"What's going on?" Roxés smiled, though she was still mainly thinking about her conversation with Aldis.

"We were all talking about these weird power things we have," Demyx told her. "And we thought that we should try to find out more about them today."

"Just some experimentation," Zexion added. "If we can figure out which ability each one of us has, it will probably be easier to learn more about them."

"So, we were looking at this map to try to find an empty room," Shixam continued the long explanation. "And we found a room that's perfect! It's empty, out of the way, and not in the restricted section!"

"Oh, that sounds great," Roxés nodded. There was a pause for a second.

"Is something the matter?" Matrix asked her. "You seem different."

"Well…I was just talking to Aldis right outside the door," she explained.

"Really? What did he say?" Shixam asked.

"He sorta creeped me out, really," Roxés said. "He was asking me how I was and stuff, then I seriously thought I heard him say…'So they did sneak in'."

"Wait, he knows?" Axel asked quickly.

"Well, when I said 'what?' after I thought that I heard him say that, he said that he didn't say anything."

"Probably lying," Axel shrugged.

"Does this mean we're going to get in trouble?" Demyx asked.

"Hang on," Zexion said, cutting Demyx off. "Roxés, you're saying that Aldis said, 'So they did sneak in,' correct?"

"Yeah," Roxés nodded.

"I thought you all just saw some lab through an open door," he continued bluntly. "You said that you didn't sneak into anywhere, and yet now…"

"Oh," Roxés said, realizing her mistake. "Oops."

"Could you tell us the whole truth?" Zexion asked.

"Fine, fine," Shixam nodded. She dropped her voice to a whisper so that only those at the table could hear.

"We snuck over to the restricted section," she explained, "and then they made me crawl through some vent to get into a lab then Axel shouted down the vent and Aldis saw me."

"You think that he saw you?" Caelix asked. "What happened after that?"

"Then we ran," Demyx added.

"That's when we met you back at the library," Roxés concluded the explanation. She looked around, noticing something for the first time. "Where's Soriox? And Roxas?"

"Well, I don't think that Roxas really knows about this supernatural power situation yet," Zexion replied. "But as for Soriox, he's finding Xaldin to tell him which room we're in. They'll probably meet us there."

"Oh, okay," Roxés nodded.

"Well, I'm done," Matrix said, unceremoniously throwing his plastic plate over into the washing bin and standing up. "Let's get going." He grinned as he made his way to the door. "Aren't you guys coming?"

"Yeah, we're coming!" Shixam nodded as she threw her plate in as well. "Come on guys, let's go!" Each of them finished quickly so not to keep the others waiting, and then they all made their way out of the room.

But once they all got to the room, they found that Soriox and Xaldin weren't there yet.

"Hm. I wonder what's keeping them," Zexion said passively as he sat down in one of the chairs that had been pushed to the side of the room. Roxés looked around the room to see that it was very wide and had a fairly high ceiling. Maybe used for meetings in the past. There were two windows on one wall, and the pouring rain could be seen through them.

"So, what do you think of the room we found?" Shixam asked Roxés, smiling.

"This looks like it will be great," Roxés replied.

"Hopefully we won't get caught in here," Xavier said quietly. Just then, the door opened and Soriox and Xaldin walked inside.

"Sorry we're late," Xaldin said quickly as they made their way over to one of the two tables in the room.

"What's with the bags?" Matrix asked inquisitively after seeing the large backpacks they were carrying.

"Well, Xaldin thought that we should get some stuff that goes along with different ailments," Soriox replied.

"Elements," Xaldin corrected him.

"Ah, right. Elements." Everyone else watched as they took things out of the bags. They were everyday things, a clump of dirt there, a leaf here, and soon, everything was spread out on the floor.

"Here," Xaldin handed a water bottle to Demyx. "Soriox explained to me that your ability is water. I think that this might help you test your skills a bit."

"Thanks," Demyx nodded, taking the bottle from him.

"Though I'm not sure what we can do for testing Axel's ability, considering that we suspect that it's fire. We don't want to burn anything down, that's for sure," Xaldin pondered what to do.

"Well, let's just not test it then," Axel shrugged.

"But then how will you learn how to use it?" Shixam asked. Axel shrugged again and remained silent.

"Come on, let's start!" Matrix said eagerly as he descended upon the testing stations. Everyone took turns going around the room and seeing if something happened when they touched something. Even Xaldin tested a few, knowing that he too must have some sort of ability. For a while, nothing happened, but suddenly, Shixam shouted,

"I've got something here!"

"Which one?" Xaldin asked.

"The piece of metal…" she said without turning around. She sounded like she was struggling with something.

"Is something wrong?"

"Uh…" she turned around and showed her hand to everyone. The piece of metal seemed to have formed around it into some sort of glove like shape. "And look at this, it moves freely with my hand. As if it were a liquid rather than a solid."

"Weird," Matrix said. "But cool all the same." He walked over to take a look, and everyone else followed, gathering around Shixam.

"There's one thing though…" Shixam said.

"What?" Roxés asked.

"I…uh…don't exactly know how to get it off," Shixam said embarrassedly.

"Oh," Xaldin said, his eyebrows coming to together in thought. "That can't be good." Just at that moment, they suddenly all heard footsteps in the hallway, and they fell silent. Voices could be heard outside the door, but it was hard to make out what they were saying. Roxés could barely understand it.

"When is the…going to…?" That was Aldis's voice. Roxés wished that she could actually hear him. Matrix almost immediately went over to the door and put his ear up against it, and Roxés followed. She was about to put her ear up against the door when she suddenly heard the voices perfectly. But it was like stereo. Through her ears she heard a soft whisper of voices, but in her head they registered loud and clear somehow.

"I think she's coming in a few minutes," that was Verity.

"Hikari is bringing her over, right?" Aldis asked.

"Yes, she is," Verity replied. "Anyway, how are all of them developing?"

"Fairly good," Aldis answered. "I have noticed something. I think that Roxés's powers are beginning to develop. I haven't really seen anything from the others yet, though."

"Ah, I see," Verity said. "By the way, do you think that everyone else will be getting here soon?"

"I don't really know…" Aldis's voice suddenly faded as the two of them walked away and Roxés suddenly noticed Matrix waving his hand in front of her face.

"Hello? Earth to Roxés!" he said, wondering if she was zoning out or not.

"Huh?" she said. "Weren't you listening to them too?"

"What do you mean? Their voices faded away a while ago. You've been spacing out for a while," he told her.

"Really? You didn't hear them at all?" Roxés asked.

"Uh…nope," Matrix smiled. "You sure you're feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Roxés mumbled, for the second time that day wondering what had just happened. She turned back to Shixam to see that she had finally managed to get the metal off of her hand.

"Well, we know what my power is now!" she grinned. "Metal! It's like I'm an alchemist or something!" She giggled a bit as Roxés turned to everyone else.

"Anyone else find anything out?" she asked.

"No, nothing," Zexion shook his head. "It seems that some of our abilities might go beyond the restrictions of the four base elements. It's going to be hard to figure them all out."

"Well, I'm sure we'll find them all out soon," Soriox smiled.

"Oh, hey, watch this!" Demyx, who was over at the window, called. They watched as he turned back towards the window. He lifted his hand, and as he traced a finger along the glass, one of the droplets of water from the rain clinging to the window followed the exact trail that his finger made. "I'm getting better at this!" Suddenly, there was a noise of a loudspeaker turning on, and they all instinctively looked up.

"Hey there everyone," Verity's gentle voice came onto the loudspeaker. "It seems that we have a new arrival here today. So, everyone come to the main meeting room to meet her. If you don't know where that is, it's just down the hall from the cafeteria. You'll see it on your map." The loudspeaker turned off abruptly with a bit of a squeal and Soriox covered his ears at the noise.

"New arrival?" Axel said. "Do they mean someone like us or one of those crazy scientists?"

"Well, only one way to find out," Caelix shrugged. Everyone gave some sign of agreement, and they started to file out. Xaldin, who was at the end of the group, thought he heard something back in the room and turned around to look. He stood there for a moment, gazing intently into the room.

"Is something wrong?" Caelix asked, coming up behind him.

"No…it's nothing," he said, turning around and walking back to the group with Caelix. Little did Xaldin know that if he had looked just a little bit higher, he would have noticed the disguised security camera quietly moving back and forth on its track, filming everything that happened in the room.

It didn't take long for everyone to gather in the meeting room. Matrix had snagged the largest group of couches and chairs he could find as soon as he set foot in the room, and now the group was seated.

"Hey, I haven't seen you guys in a while," Roxas smiled, joining them. "What have you guys been doing?"

"Just reading in the library and such," Matrix replied quickly. Roxés saw that Roxas didn't look skeptical of the answer at all. And she also noted that it seemed that both Axel and Matrix were pros at lying.

A few minutes later, Aldis and Verity walked into the room, followed by another woman and a girl who looked to be around the teens' ages. Aldis cleared his throat and the room fell silent.

"Everyone, this," he motioned to the woman, who had long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, "is Hikari. She's new here on staff." Hikari gave a wide smile, and actually looked quite friendly. Roxés noted that Hikari was wearing a long, flowing black dress under her coat. Although Roxés wondered how Hikari was going to do any work wearing such formal clothes, she didn't linger long on the question, and instead turned her eyes onto the teenage girl, who hadn't been introduced yet. This girl also had blonde hair, although hers wasn't even near as long as Hikari's. And unlike Hikari, the girl's eyes were a darker shade of blue, while Hikari's eyes were quite light. Roxés wondered to herself why she was comparing the two of them but was pulled out of her thoughts when Aldis began to speak again.

"And this," he motioned to the girl, "is Saxasra. She will be joining you all here. Please treat her kindly."

"He sounds like a school teacher," Matrix snickered quietly. Aldis nodded to Saxasra, and she looked around the room, trying to find a friendly looking group. When she saw Roxés's group, she walked over and offered up a smile.

"Hi," she said. Everyone greeted her in some fashion.

"So, you're new here, huh?" Demyx said after a short pause in which some of them worried no one would say anything.

"Mm-hm," Saxasra nodded. "I really don't see why we all have to stay here though."

"Well, let's just say that I think that these scientists have a screw loose," Matrix smirked.

"Just one?" Axel asked.

"Anyway, why don't we show you around?" Shixam asked. "You'll need to know where everything is."

"Thanks, I'd love that!" Saxasra smiled wider, glad that she had found friends so quickly. The group of teens left the room, as did the other groups of people after a while. Once the room was empty, Aldis turned to Hikari.

"Welcome to the facility," he said simply.

"Glad to be here," Hikari smiled. "It's been a while since I've seen you guys!"

"It has, hasn't it," Verity nodded.

"So, how's everyone looking?" Hikari asked.

"We haven't seen any significant reactions yet, but they'll probably start to show signs of change soon," Aldis told her.

"Oh, good so I didn't miss it," Hikari went on happily.

"So anyway…" Aldis continued dryly, perhaps wondering how Hikari could possibly be so happy all the time, "I think that now would be the time to keep a sharp look out. We can't miss anything."

"Right," Hikari said, and Verity nodded.

"We'll need to--"

"Aldis!" a man suddenly ran into the room. Aldis turned to face him as he came over.

"What's wrong?" Aldis asked.

"I just got some security footage of one of the unused meeting rooms! You have to see this!" the man pulled out a portable camera that had a data disk pushed into one of the slots in the sides. Aldis watched the footage intently while Hikari tried to see it over his shoulder and Verity stood where she was, already expecting what was coming.

"Hm…" Aldis murmured upon the tape ending. "Interesting."


	5. Questions

Wow, I am so sorry for the slow updates! ;_; Stupid homework… -_- Either way, chapter five is here! And as for those of you who are reading my other stories, they will be updated over thanksgiving break, I promise! Well, anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own KH or anything related to it in any way…nothing has changed… :3

Another Disclaimer: This is still my own story. XD I'm not copying anyone, especially not upside-down-boat. ^^ They are two different stories. XD

Chapter Five

The loudspeaker came on suddenly, and very early in the morning. Roxés forced herself out of the haze of sleep as the tone of it coming on sounded throughout all the rooms.

"Ugh, whaaaat?" Shixam moaned, burying herself under her blankets.

"Attention everyone," Verity's voice floated over the loudspeaker system. "We need Roxés, Shixam, Caelix, Matrix, Soriox, Xavier, Demyx, Zexion, Axel, and Xaldin to come to room A-23 in a few minutes. Please be prompt," the loudspeaker shut off and Shixam poked her head out of the blankets, looking across the room at Roxés.

"Ooooh crap," she sighed as she sat up.

---

"Is this it?" Zexion asked as they all gathered in front of a room after a little while.

"That's what the map says," Demyx replied, taking another look at the map in his hands.

"This sucks, I want to go eat!" Matrix grumbled.

"You're worrying about food at a time like this?" Axel asked.

"What?" Matrix looked over at him. "I'm hungry."

"All we really need to worry about right now," Xaldin said to all of them. "Is not revealing the information we know. Don't answer any questions that could jeopardize our situation. We don't know what these people would do if they found out." He got nods and signs of affirmation from the others as he turned to look at the door again.

"What do you think that they're going to ask us about?" Soriox lowered his voice as another employee happened to pass by the group.

"There's no real way of telling, I guess," Xavier shrugged, watching to make sure that the employee was around the corner before he answered.

"How long are these guys going to keep us waiting, though?" Shixam sighed. "Matrix is right, I want breakfast!"

"Exactly!" Matrix agreed. "That's it, I'm leaving!" Just as Matrix turned, though, the door opened. He sighed in exasperation and turned back around. Verity was the one who emerged from the doorway.

"Ah, so you're all here," she smiled gently. "That's good. Now, we're going to be calling you in one at a time--"

"Are we in trouble?" Soriox suddenly blurted out, not able to stand his curiosity any longer.

"No, of course you aren't," Verity replied. Still, when it came to Verity, it was hard to tell what she was thinking by her face.

"One at a time, huh?" Matrix asked. "Sooo, while we're waiting for whoever it is to come out, can we go get food?"

"No," Verity said bluntly, looking at him as if he should have known that from the beginning. He grumpily sat down in one of the chairs in the hall, doing all he could to show that he was annoyed.

"So, who's first?" Roxés asked.

"Hm…" Verity looked through the group. "Ah, yes. Demyx, you're first."

"Me?" Demyx asked, pointing at himself with a surprised face.

"Mm-hm," Verity smiled and nodded. "Please come in."

"Hehe, okay guys I'll see you later!" Demyx smiled and waved at them nervously as he walked inside. The door shut slowly and quietly. Everyone was silent for a moment.

"Yeeeah…" Matrix broke the silence. "Food time." He stood up and promptly walked off towards the cafeteria.

"Er…" Shixam tried to decide whether she should go too.

"I wouldn't if I were you," Zexion cautioned her before she had a chance to stand up. "He's probably going to find himself in trouble."

"Uh…yeah," Shixam nodded and went back to her seat on the floor, which she had grabbed just as the door had been closing.

"Is he going to be okay in there?" Soriox glanced at the closed door. "Demyx, I mean."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Caelix smiled, sitting down next to him.

"Still, with these crazy scientists here, you never know," Axel sighed, taking the last chair before anyone else could get it.

"Hm…" Roxés looked at the door. "I wonder what's going on in there anyway?"

---

Demyx found himself in a fairly small room, with a single table, which had a few glasses of water on it. It seated four people, and Demyx saw that only Aldis and Verity were there. He wondered just where that new woman, Hikari, had gone, as he sat down.

"Hello, Demyx," Aldis offered a greeting.

"Uh, hi," Demyx tried his best to make his smile seem real as he faced Aldis, who was across the table from him.

"Water?" Aldis offered him one of the glasses.

"Sure, thanks," Demyx said quickly, moving the glass over to his side of the table. "Uh…so what are we going to be doing?"

"It's nothing bad of course," Aldis adjusted his glasses. "We just need to ask you a few questions."

"Questions? Why?" Demyx inquired.

"Now, we're short on time, so let's start," Aldis said, changing the subject quickly.

"Okay…" Demyx replied uneasily.

"So, Demyx," Aldis began. "How are you liking it here so far?"

"It's okay, I guess," Demyx shrugged. "I mean, it would be nice if we could leave soon…"

"Hm, I see," Aldis nodded, not giving him a real response. "And, has anything exciting, or strange even, happened since you arrived?"

"Uh…not really," Demyx smiled, trying to keep from not looking nervous.

"Not really?" Aldis continued. "That makes it sound as if one thing has happened."

"Well, I meant to say, uh, no, n-nothing's happened," Demyx answered him, stuttering a bit.

"Are you feeling nervous, Demyx?" Aldis asked, looking him straight in the eye.

"Uh, no, no," Demyx cleared his throat as his voice suddenly became rough. "I'm just a bit thirsty." He quickly started gulping down the water to avoid answering any immediate questions. He placed down the glass, his hand still resting on it, and coughed a bit.

"Better?" Aldis asked.

"Uh, yeah," Demyx nodded.

"Anyway, let's continue…" Aldis glanced at his wristwatch. "We really are running out of time." Demyx sighed in relief internally, eager for the questioning to end.

"Demyx," Aldis began his questioning again. "While you've been staying here, you haven't been…venturing into unused rooms, have you?" Demyx was taken aback by the question.

_Does he know?!_ he thought. The water in the glass rippled a bit, although Demyx hadn't moved his hand at all. Aldis glanced down at it, and Demyx quickly picked up the glass again and drank the rest of the water, putting it down onto the table a little bit too quickly, so it slipped out of his hand. Aldis caught it as it rolled off the tabletop, placing it back upright on the table.

"So? Your answer?" Aldis seemed not phased.

"Nope, I've only been in my bedroom, the meeting room, and the cafeteria," Demyx answered before Aldis even finished talking. Aldis' watch suddenly beeped, and he looked at the time again.

"Well, it looks like we're done here," Aldis said. Demyx smiled, this time a real smile.

"Okay," he replied, standing up and heading straight for the door. He opened it quickly and went outside.

"Oh, look. He's alive," Matrix said through a mouthful of muffin.

"Of course he's alive," Caelix said quickly. "I mean, it's not like it's dangerous in there or anything."

"So, what happened?" Shixam asked Demyx.

"They were asking me all these weird questions," Demyx replied in a whisper so that Aldis and Verity wouldn't hear.

"Like what?" Axel turned to Demyx.

"Well--" Demyx was cut off when Verity came to the doorway. Knowing that he might get in trouble, Matrix quickly stuffed the rest of his muffin into his mouth. Verity glanced down at him for a moment, and stared at his full cheeks for a second.

"What?" he asked, trying to seem innocent.

"Never mind," Verity shook her head, looking back up at the others. "So, who's next…?" she glanced around again. "How about you, Soriox?"

"Huh?" he looked up at her. "Are you sure?" He definitely seemed nervous. Verity nodded, and he stood up. "I'll…uh…be back soon!" he called to the others trying to keep up the same charade of optimism that Demyx had put into play. Matrix coughed up nearly half his muffin as soon as the door closed.

"That's…gross," Roxés scooted away from him a bit.

"Blame her for making me shove it all in my mouth," Matrix replied as he picked up the bits on the floor and tossed them into a trashcan. "Man, what a waste of a muffin."

"So, anyway…" Xaldin spoke up finally. "Demyx, you say that they questioned you?"

"Yeah," Demyx nodded. "I think that they know that we were in that room."

"Well that's not good," Xavier sighed.

"Hey, I got it!" Matrix said suddenly.

"Got what?" Demyx inquired.

"I think that those two are bringing in people who they think are most likely to tell," Matrix explained.

"Gee, thanks," Demyx rolled his eyes and turned away.

"No, come on, I'm serious!" Matrix continued. "It makes sense! If they want to know something, they wouldn't question someone who's a good liar or doesn't crack under pressure!"

"That does make sense…" Zexion nodded slowly.

"That's not good. Soriox isn't good with lying, I think," Shixam frowned. "At least, from what I can see."

"Well, then we need to get him out of there somehow," Matrix stood up. "If not, we'll all get caught, right?"

"We can't just go running in there," Axel objected.

"I never said that," Matrix answered. "I have a better plan."

"Like what?" Axel raised an eyebrow. "What else can we do?"

"…Things…" Matrix inched innocently towards one of the fire alarms mounted on the wall. At this point, everyone could tell what he was about to do.

"Hang on, we'll get drenched…!" Roxés suddenly noticed the water sprinkler system on the ceiling. Matrix shrugged. He looked left and right to make sure that there weren't any onlookers besides the group with him.

"Oops," he said in a sort of exaggerated way. "My hand slipped!" He tugged down on the handle of the alarm and it went off immediately, ringing bells throughout the building. Then, the sprinklers went off, soaking the entire group. There were sighs and groans of annoyance throughout the hall.

"Everyone, we'll have to finish this later!" Aldis suddenly burst out of the door into the hallway, and Matrix moved away from the fire alarm. "Follow me outside!" Verity followed directly behind Aldis, and Soriox trailed behind with the rest of the group.

"See? It worked, right? Right?" Matrix smiled smugly at his friends.

"Though you could have chosen a better way…" Xavier sighed.

"Heh, I may have to try this again sometime," Matrix grinned as they filed outside into the yard.

---

"A false alarm, huh?" Hikari asked Aldis and Verity.

"Yes, it seems to be so," Aldis nodded, sounding annoyed.

"Ha, that sounds like a pretty good prank!" Hikari giggled. Aldis looked at her in disbelief and Verity shook her head. "What? It does!"

"Never mind, Hikari," Aldis sighed. "And we were right in the middle of something when it was set off."

"We need to find out who did it," Verity added.

"Of course. We'll do that now," Aldis nodded. The three of them turned around to look at everyone else in the room. Everyone had been gathered there upon Aldis finding out that the fire alarm had been set off without real reason.

"Alright, everyone," Aldis said after clearing his throat. "As you all have probably heard, the fire alarm that went off earlier was a false alarm. Someone set off the fire alarm with no reason. So now, I would like whoever did it to simply say they did." The room was filled with dead silence. Aldis looked around, then sighed, adjusting his glasses quickly. "You won't get into any big trouble…I just want to know. Whoever it is, just say it." Matrix suddenly stood up.

"What are you doing?" Shixam said quietly in alarm.

"I have something to say," Matrix announced. "I'm here to say that…I saw him set it off." Matrix bluntly pointed into the crowd on the other side of the room. Everyone looked to the person he had pointed to, which happened to be the man with pink hair. He looked around in surprise.

"I didn't do that!" he objected, standing up as well.

"Thank you for telling us Matrix," Aldis said quickly, ignoring the man's protests. "Marluxia, please stay after to speak with me." The man, apparently named Marluxia, sat back in his chair in a huff. Matrix sat down as well, snickering.

"That was terrible…but so funny!" Shixam was trying to keep herself from bursting out laughing. Matrix grinned, seeming proud of himself.

"Alright, you're all dismissed," Aldis said as he stepped down from the podium at the end of the room.

"Let's get out of here before they want to start questioning us again," Roxés whispered to her friends as all of them stood up. They all gave some sort of sign of affirmation.

"Where are we going now?" Demyx asked.

"Let's all go into our room, like we planned the other day," Zexion said. "If there are any cameras in there, we'll be bound to notice them."

"Sure," Axel shrugged.

"Hey, Matrix," Soriox caught up to Matrix, who was walking near the front. "Did you really see that guy set off the alarm?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I did," Matrix nodded. "I saw the alarm get set off."

"Oh. Wait…huh? Did he set it off or not?" Matrix grinned to himself and quickly ran ahead, leaving the other boy in a state of confusion.

"I have a feeling that Matrix is going to end up getting us in trouble some time…" Shixam, who walked over to Roxés, laughed awkwardly.

"At this point, there's really no telling what's going to happen," Roxés shrugged, a faint smile on her face. The two of them entered the boys' room and sat down on some cushions on the floor.

"Alright, everyone," Zexion, who had just gotten into the room, said. "Any ideas on what to do next? Let's start the meeting."


	6. A Bit of Exploration

These updates are coming so slowly… ^^; Oh well, I finally finished this chapter. XD I'll be working on the other stories next, cause they've been seriously ignored for the past few months… ^^; Anyway, we've still got room for 2 more OCs in scientist positions, if anyone is interested. :3 And sorry if it got all bolded and underlined again…I don't know why Fanfiction does this to me… -_- So, without further ado, please enjoy the chapter! ^^

Disclaimer 1: I still don't own Kingdom Hearts, I only own original characters and plot of this story. XD

Disclaimer 2: And you all also probably can guess that I'm still not copying off upside-down-boat… -w- But I'm gonna put this disclaimer in anyway. XD

Chapter Six

It was the middle of the night when Xavier awoke to the sound of someone moving around in the bedroom. He sat up from on his bed to take a look around, and saw Matrix putting on a sweatshirt.

"What are you doing?" Xavier asked sleepily. Matrix glanced over at him, then went back to what he was doing.

"I'm getting ready," Matrix replied simply.

"Ready for what?" Xavier asked dully.

"I'm going to find out what's going on," Matrix pulled a duffel bag down from the top of the bunk bed across from Xavier's single bed. "I don't want to just sit here and be some guinea pig. I'm gonna find out what these scientists are doing."

"You're going to get caught on the security cameras," Xavier told him.

"I'm not going to get caught!" Matrix replied, raising his voice a bit.

"Sh, you'll wake up Soriox," Xavier said, motioning to Soriox, who was sleeping on the lower bunk. Matrix looked over there for a moment, then turned back to Xavier.

"Like I said," Matrix made his voice quieter. "I'm not going to get caught."

"Hm," Xavier nodded unbelievingly. "What's in the bag?"

"Stuff I might need," Matrix replied. Xavier stood up and walked over, trying to get a look inside, but Matrix closed it.

"What?" Xavier looked at Matrix. "I can't see? How did you get this stuff in here anyway?"

"It was inside one of the bags that I asked them to bring, and I said it was clothes and books," Matrix replied. "Anyway, I'm going to get going before the guards start the morning shift." Xavier turned to look at the clock on one of the tables. It was two in the morning. He rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"How are you planning on discovering the scientists' plan?" Xavier turned back to Matrix only to see that he wasn't there anymore. The door was swinging. Xavier sighed, walking over to it.

"This is not going to end well…" he said to himself as he shut it.

---

"Let's take a look in here, now…" Matrix said to himself quietly as he came to the door to one of the labs. It hadn't been very hard to find, he had only had to go to a random end of a hallway in the restricted area. He tested the door. Locked. Checking that no one was coming, he unzipped his duffel bag and reached inside, bringing out a small box. He opened it up to reveal a lock picking kit. Once again checking that nobody was coming, he set to work on the lock, trying to make quick work of it. He had the door open after about a minute. After opening the door and looking into the lab, he checked around the opening of the door. There seemed to be some sort of guard box there, which probably connected to some sort of security system inside the room. Matrix put the lock picking kit back into the bag, then taking out a very small laptop like machine. He plugged it into the guard box with a wire and started trying to hack the system.

_Geez, these guys mean business, _he thought while working. _I don't think that normal scientific labs have security systems like this. _Finally, after a little while, he managed to shut down the security system. He checked his wristwatch. It said two thirty.

_Looks like I'll have to finish this fast, _he thought. He walked inside, taking a last look around for any other security measures. He saw a security camera up in the corner, and quickly ducked out of its view. Being careful to stay out of view of the security camera, and pretty sure that it couldn't see him, he crept over to the corner where it was mounted. He pulled some paper and tape out of his bag, and climbing up onto one of the counters, taped the piece of paper over the lens of the camera. Scanning the room for any other cameras, he found nothing.

"Phew," he sighed, getting down off the counter. He looked around again, trying to find a computer of some sort. He went to the nearest one he saw, and turned it on. As he began to go through the files, he at first didn't find anything of real importance. But then, something strange caught his eye.

"This place was founded in 1926?" he said to himself. He looked through the file some more. "And here's a picture of the staff…" He was surprised. "Hey! That's Aldis! And Verity! They were on the original staff…but how is that possible? It was founded eighty-three years ago! And here, they look exactly the same as they do now…" He got out of the file, and looked in another one. "What's this place up to anyway…hm…the 'Human Weapon Program'…?" He clicked on the link into the file, but he was stopped by a window that asked for a password.

"Crap," he breathed out in annoyance. He took out his small laptop again, and plugged it into the computer. "Damn, I can't get to the password anywhere…what would these scientist guys use for a password anyway?" He thought for a moment. Matrix knew that he was going to have to take a wild guess. "Uh…how about the year it was founded?" He entered in "1926" and pressed the submit button. A big "denied" appeared in the box, and it went back to the password screen. "Uh…maybe it's one of their names." Matrix first entered in "Aldis" and came up with another big "denied" message. He then entered "Verity" and got a third "denied" across the screen. Suddenly, another message came up. It read: "Incorrect password in succession: intruder detected. Alarm to go of."

"C-Crap!" Matrix almost fell out of the chair while backing away from the computer. He gathered up his things into the duffel bag, and then made a dash for the door, only to find that it had locked itself. That's when the alarm went off. It was extremely loud, blaring through the room, and probably the rest of the building. Matrix pulled on the door once more, then searched around the room for some other exit. There were no other doors to be seen. He could suddenly hear footsteps out in the hallway, and he ran over to one side of the room, ducking down and hiding behind one of the counters. He heard the door open, and some of the scientists came inside. The alarm was stopped, so Matrix assumed that one of them had turned it off.

"I don't see anyone in here…" came a voice.

"But if the alarm went off, that means that one of them must have been in here," another voice. That one was Verity.

"Exactly," now Aldis was talking. "Everyone, search the room. We have to find who was in here. They couldn't have gotten out, so they must be hiding somewhere." As one of the scientists started towards his position, Matrix quickly scrambled behind another desk, getting out of view.

"Hey, I found something!" came another voice.

"What is it?" Aldis asked.

"This bag," was the reply. Matrix realized in horror that he had forgot his bag behind the other desk.

"Hm…this looks like the bag that we brought for Matrix," Aldis said. "Matrix? Are you in here?" There were more footsteps as the scientists continued to search the room. Matrix quickly got underneath one of the desks, in the hollow where a person's legs would go. He held his breath as he saw a pair of legs pass by. He looked cautiously out, and saw that all of the scientists were now on the side of the room opposite the door.

_If I could just make it out there…_ he thought as he began to position himself to make a run for it. Just as all of the scientists were looking to the other side of the room, Matrix quickly slipped out from under the desk and ran for the door. But his dash was quickly cut short when he tripped over a wire, crashing to the floor. All of the scientists turned in surprise, and Aldis was the first one to walk over.

"Oh, so it was you, Matrix," Aldis looked down at him. "What are you doing in here?"

"I was sleepwalking," Matrix said simply with a bit of a nervous smirk on his face.

"Hm…I doubt that," Aldis shook his head. Matrix backed away from Aldis and stood up, as much as his knee hurt from when he had fallen. "Were you trying to find something in here, Matrix?"

"Well, I guess the game's up then, huh?" Matrix flashed another grin as he quickly turned and ran out the door. He stumbled a bit from his hurt knee, but kept on running down the hallway.

"Someone, call security," Aldis said, still calm.

"I'll do that," Verity replied. Aldis nodded to her, then began to follow Matrix down the hallway.

---

Matrix kept on running down the hall until he got to his room, and went inside, starting to dig through the dresser near his bed.

"What's going on?" Soriox asked when Matrix entered. "We heard the alarm. Did something bad happen?"

"I told you you'd get caught," Xavier sighed.

"No time to talk now," Matrix said, still digging through the dresser. He stood up, pulling a skateboard out of one of the drawers. "Don't leave the room, or you'll get in trouble too!" He quickly ran back into the hallway and continued on the way he was going before.

"Did Matrix do something bad?" Soriox asked.

"When _doesn't _he do something bad?" Xavier shrugged.

---

Matrix could see that his pursuers were gaining on him, so he put the skateboard on the floor, and got on as fast as he could, pushing off and gaining speed.

"It's a good thing I asked them to bring this," he said to himself. He made a sharp turn into another hallway, and then another, not really caring where he was going. He just wanted to lose the people who were chasing him. He rolled to a stop in a room that appeared to be a dead end. It looked like some sort of security room, and had computers and other machines all over the place. Matrix looked around for some way out, and sighted a window high up on a wall. He could hear voices and hurried footsteps in the hallway. As fast as he could, he picked up his skateboard and scrambled up onto one of the counters, then reached up for the window. Luckily, it was unlocked. After opening it, he threw his skateboard out, and then began trying to climb through himself.

"There he is! Get him back in here, quick!" came a shout. Matrix didn't pay attention to who it was. He pulled himself halfway through the window before he felt someone grab his leg.

"Get off!" he shouted, kicking out at them with his other leg. They let go, and he started trying to pull himself through the small window again. But more people were trying to pull him back in. He reached out to a nearby tree branch, and grabbed onto it. But it almost immediately snapped, and he was tugged back inside the room. His forehead smacked the window frame on the way in, and he fell to the floor with a thud, but got up quickly. He was cornered.

"The fact that you're running away means that you really were up to something," said Aldis, who came walking out of the crowd.

"Stay away from me!" Matrix shouted at him, backing up into one of the computers. Just as Matrix's hand met the machine, all of the screens lit up. Aldis looked up in surprise as all of the machines throughout the whole room suddenly whirred to life. But they weren't working normally at all. Numbers shot across the screens in random succession, and words flashed all around the monitors. It was as if they were totally malfunctioning. Then, the alarm went off again. And next, the sprinklers.

"He's meddling with the technologically powered units in the building!" Aldis said to the rest of the group, who had started panicking.

"What the…" Matrix pulled away from the computer only to accidentally touched a printer, which started shooting out paper at an unbelievable speed.

"Quick, get him under control!" Aldis shouted to the rest of the group, who seemed to be just standing there. When one of the men started advancing on Matrix, he decided to try out this new power he had discovered. He placed his hand onto another computer, and a flash drive flew out of its port and smacked the man right in the forehead. As the man flinched, Matrix had the perfect moment to escape. He ran out of the room and into the hall. But his path didn't go very far. Just around the corner, he was met by another group of guards. The first group came out of the room he had just been in.

"So, we've finally caught him?" Aldis sighed, straightening his glasses. Matrix looked back and forth between the two groups. There really was no way to escape this time. He made one last attempt to push through the group of guards blocking the hallway, but was quickly stopped.

"Take him to room 13C," Aldis instructed the guards. A few of the guards grabbed Matrix and started pulling him off.

"I know that you're doing something bad here!" Matrix shouted back at Aldis. "And I'm gonna find out what it is! Just you wait!" Aldis ignored him, and walked back into the room that they had caught Matrix in before. Verity was still in there.

"I think that we've discovered his power," Verity said.

"An ability over technology, hm?" Aldis observed the still malfunctioning machines.

"He could prove very useful," Verity nodded.

"Or, he might be able to shut down our entire facility," Aldis replied. "We can't risk it."

"But imagine how much easier his power would make things!" Verity objected.

"He knows too much, and with a powerful ability like that, if he got the chance, he could destroy everything we've worked for here. And I don't want to risk that happening."

"So, what do you suggest we do?" Verity asked.

"What we always do when things get like this," Aldis shrugged. "Come on, let's go."

---

"What do you think happened?" Shixam yawned as they all sat down to eat breakfast.

"I really don't know," Soriox said. "Matrix just came running in, grabbed his skateboard, and ran out."

"But we can be sure that he's gotten himself in a lot of trouble," Xavier sighed.

"How can you tell?" Roxés asked.

"Isn't he usually the first one here eating?" Xavier asked. "And now he's not here at all. If I know Matrix, he would never pass up a meal. They must have caught him."

"Well then, we have to help him out!" Caelix said quickly. Unnoticed by everyone else, Roxas and Saxasra sat down at the end of the table, curious about what everyone was talking about.

"Do you think that he's discovered his power by now?" Axel inquired. "Could he use that to help get himself out?"

"There's no way of telling," Zexion shook his head slowly. "Speaking of which, has anyone else made any progress with their own ability?"

"I have, a little bit," Demyx said. "But not much."

"I haven't really gotten any farther," Shixam shrugged. Everyone else gave a negative answer of some sort.

"Uh…what 'powers' are you guys talking about?" Roxas asked. Everyone turned to the end of the table where Roxas and Saxasra were sitting, and realized in shock that they had just revealed their secret to even more people.

"Well…I guess it can't be helped now," Zexion shrugged. "We'll tell you what's going on."

---

"And all that is happening _here_?!" Saxasra said in alarm. "Which means that each and every person here except for the scientists has some kind of power?"

"It looks like it," Axel nodded.

"Weird…" Roxas still looked like he only half believed it. Xavier could see the disbelief on his face.

"What? You don't believe us, Roxas?" he asked.

"Uh, no, no," Roxas said quickly. "It's just…uh…a bit hard to believe."

"Why don't we give him an example then," Shixam shrugged. "Dem?"

"Sure," Demyx smiled. He pulled his glass of water over where everyone could see it. Then, after taking a quick glance around to make sure that no one else was watching, he touched his finger to the surface of the water, then raised it. To Roxas and Saxasra's awe, a thin stream of water followed his finger up into the air. He then dropped it back into the cup.

"Do you believe us now?" Shixam asked.

"Uh…yeah," Roxas nodded with a bit of a surprised smile on his face.

"Hey…" Caelix looked around. "Where's Xaldin?"

"I think he's in the library," Zexion replied. "Trying to find more information on things."

"So, anyway…" Soriox said. "Where should we start to look for Matrix?" Everyone thought for a moment, but no ideas were presented.

"You're looking for your friend Matrix?" came a voice suddenly. All of them turned around to see Hikari standing near their table, and all of them desperately hoped that she hadn't been there for very long.

"Uh…yeah," Shixam nodded quickly.

"Oh, well, he's in the hospital wing," Hikari said simply.

"The hospital wing?" Zexion asked in surprise.

"Did he get hurt?" Soriox sounded worried.

"I think that he hit his head on something," Hikari replied. "He had a big bump on his forehead. Anyway, if you wanna see him, he's right…" she took out a map and pointed to a room, "there."

"Thanks," Axel said, flashing her one of his signature 'get this adult away from me' smiles.

"You're welcome!" Hikari grinned. "Anyway, if you want to go, you'll need a scientist with you, so I guess that I could come with you guys."

"Sounds good," Xavier shrugged.

"Alright," Hikari smiled. "Let's get going, then!"


	7. Unchanging State

I'm so sorry that this update took so long! x_x Now that it's summer, I'll try to update faster. ^^; Anyway, we've still got two scientist OC spaces open for you ppl… o3o But if I don't get any by the time I finish the next chapter, I won't be able to put them in. D: So, anyway, here's the new chapter! :D Hope you like it! ^^ And as another note, fanfiction obviously hates me, because it keeps destroying my indents and paragraph dividers… _ Well, if they don't show up, sorry. D: You'll have to do without them. _

Disclaimer: I don't, nor will I ever, obviously, own Kingdom Hearts in any way, shape, or form.

Disclaimer 2: Still not copying off upside-down-boat. Our stories are totally different…but both are uber awesome. XD

Chapter Seven

"Matrix," Hikari called as she led the group into Matrix's room. "I've brought you some visitors!"

"Visitors?" Matrix asked as everyone came into the room behind Hikari. "Oh. Hey, guys."

"Are you okay, Matrix?" Soriox asked as the group gathered around his bed.

"Yeah, we were really worried when we heard that you were in the hospital wing," Shixam added.

"What did you do to your head?" Roxés asked, observing the bandage coiling around Matrix's head and over his forehead.

"And why did you actually try that stunt last night?" Xavier asked bluntly.

"Whoa, whoa, hang on," Matrix said. "I can't answer so many questions at once. Slow down."

"Okay, me first!" Soriox said before anyone else could say anything. "You didn't get really really hurt, right?"

"Not too much," Matrix replied, seeming to glance over at Hikari for a moment.

"So, what happened last night?" Demyx asked.

"Well…" Matrix cleared his throat. He coughed, then cleared it again. "Uh…Hikari? Could I have a glass of juice or something? I'm pretty thirsty."

"Sure," Hikari smiled, leaving the room. Matrix waited until she was out of earshot.

"Okay, I don't have much time before she comes back, so ask your questions now while there aren't any scientists in here," Matrix said quickly.

"No surveillance cameras?" Zexion asked.

"None with audio," Matrix answered. "Now, if you have questions, hurry up and ask them."

"Well, what happened last night?" Axel repeated Demyx's question. "I think that we need to at least know that much."

"I wanted to find out what the scientists here are doing," Matrix replied. "I snuck into one of their labs, and looked up some info. And I found some really weird stuff. Apparently, this place has been open since 1926. And when I looked at the picture of the original staff, Aldis and Verity were there, and they looked exactly the same as they do now."

"Seriously?" Shixam asked, surprised.

"No way," Roxés seemed disbelieving. "That can't be right."

"Well, it is," Matrix said. "Anyway, I accidentally set off the alarm 'cause I didn't know the password, and then I got chased down the hall, I grabbed my skateboard, then ran into another room. I tossed my skateboard out the window, and then I tried to get through, but they pulled me back in…oh, wait! Aw, man! My skateboard is still outside! Some random person could pick it up!"

"Let's just stick to what happened," Zexion tried to get him back on track.

"Well, anyway, I think I figured out my power," Matrix smirked.

"Really?" Soriox asked, seeming excited. "What is it?"

"Yeah, yeah, tell us," Demyx smiled, seeming equally excited to hear.

"I'll show you guys once I get out of the hospital wing," Matrix said, smiling at keeping them in suspense.

"Why are you in a bed if you just hit your head anyway?" Roxés questioned.

"Hang on, he might be hurt more than that," Caelix said.

"Well, I did hit my knee pretty hard. Then my head got hit on the window," Matrix told them. "But now, it's weird. I feel really tired. I can hardly move. I think that they did it. I mean, right after they caught me, they gave me another shot. And I don't know what it's gonna do, but it can't be a good thing."

"What did the stuff in the syringe look like?" Roxas asked.

"Blue," Matrix replied. "I don't know what it was."

"It wasn't glowing, right?" Saxasra asked. "Because if you're radioactive now or something…"

"No, it wasn't glowing," Matrix replied. "And it's not like I'm dying here. I just feel really tired."

"Technically, lethargy could be a premature sign of death," Zexion remarked.

"Well, gee, thanks," Matrix rolled his eyes. "I feel much better now."

"Sorry," Zexion shrugged.

"They wouldn't get rid of you, anyway," Axel commented. "I mean, if you're one of their experiments, then they want to keep you in good condition. Just like the rest of us."

"Yeah, I just don't know," Matrix said. "Oh, and the project that the scientists are working on is called-"

"I got the juice!" Hikari said happily as she suddenly came back into the room, carrying a glass full of orange juice. "I hope you like orange juice!"

"Yeah, I love orange juice!" Matrix smiled in a friendly way, taking the glass of juice from her. "I really like this stuff. Thanks, Hikari!"

"No problem," Hikari grinned at him. "Anyway, I think that you should all give Matrix a chance to rest, so let's get going, alright?"

"Sure, let's go," Demyx nodded, and the group began to exit, leaving Matrix in the room by himself. He looked down at the orange juice floating in his cup, scrunching up his nose a bit.

"Blech," he said, pouring it into the plant next to the bed and putting the glass down onto the table. "Enjoy your vitamin C, plant."

The teens in the know spent the next few days continuously trying to figure out and practice their powers, without much success. Xaldin had found a small fireplace where Axel could practice, but other than that, not much progress was made. Matrix was able to leave the hospital wing after a few days, but the scientists still insisted that he continued to wear the bandage on his head.

"Pancake day. Awesome," Matrix commented at breakfast, heaping a big pile of pancakes onto his plate.

"Hey, leave some for everyone else," Roxés, who was behind him, said.

"I'm recovering from illness," Matrix said, stuffing some pancake into his mouth on his way back to the table. "I need my nutrients." Roxés got some for herself, then made her way back to the table, where the rest of the group was waiting. Xaldin was off somewhere again, having eaten breakfast before any of them had woken up.

"So, are you glad to be out of the hospital, Matrix?" Demyx was saying when Roxés sat down in her regular seat.

"Yeah, definitely," Matrix said. "I mean, every single day, it was just 'let me take your temperature', 'here, take this medicine', 'oh, no, you can't watch that T.V. in your condition'."

"They wouldn't let you watch the T.V. in your room?" Axel asked.

"Nope," Matrix shook his head solemnly. "It was hell on earth."

"Hey, has anyone seen Sori this morning?" Shixam asked, looking around the table for Soriox. "I mean, he usually gets here pretty early."

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen him at all," Caelix shrugged.

"Here he comes, now," Saxasra pointed to the door, where Soriox had just come bounding in, a big smile on his face and holding a bunny plushie.

"Where did that come from?" Matrix asked him as he reached the table, indicating the bunny.

"I don't know," he told them. "I just woke up and he was on my bed, right next to me. He says his name is Michi."

"How cute," Shixam giggled. Roxés smiled a bit, but rolled her eyes.

"You…talked to him?" Matrix asked. "Okay."

"What, I did!" Soriox said in his own defense. "Oh, and also, I had a really weird dream last night."

"What was it about?" Roxas asked.

"I was in a really weird place," Soriox replied, sitting down at the table. "Everything was really bright and colorful and stuff, and there were walking playing cards. And then, there was this thing on the table, and I ate it, and I got really small, and then there was…well, there was a lot of stuff. But it was really weird. Still, it seemed like a pretty happy place. Maybe I can go there someday!"

"To a place like that?" Zexion questioned.

"Sure, why not?" Soriox smiled. "I mean, it's not like I can't find it somewhere."

"Doubt it," Matrix mumbled through a mouthful of pancakes. "First, we've gotta get out of here."

"Well, yeah," Soriox nodded. "But after that, I'm going to try to find that place right away." Soriox paused for a minute. "Michi says that he wants to, too." Shixam giggled again.

"He's just too cute!" she said quietly to Roxés, who shrugged. "I mean, at least he's acting his age. He's ten, right?"

"Hey, guys," Axel said out of the blue. "Who is that girl way over there with the freaky pink hair guy?" He pointed to another side of the room, indicating a teenage girl talking to Marluxia, the man who Matrix had blamed for setting off the fire alarm.

"I dunno," Matrix shrugged.

"She looks like she's around our age," Saxasra commented. "Maybe we should get her to join our group or something."

"Sounds good to me," Shixam nodded. "The more people we can get out of here, the better, right?"

"So, who's going to go talk to her?" Axel asked. He was met by absolute silence. "If you think that I'm going, then no way. Why can't one of you girls go?"

"Fine, fine, I'll go," Shixam stood up. "I'll be right back." They waited a little while, and when Shixam returned, alone, she seemed a bit annoyed.

"What happened?" Xavier asked her.

"That girl is a big jerk!" she grumbled.

"What's her name?" Caelix asked.

"Roxxy," Shixam replied. "And she's a jerk!"

"Hang on, I can deal with jerks," Roxés said, standing up. "I'll go see if I can talk to her." Roxés walked across the room to where Roxxy was standing, trying to look friendly at least.

"No, I don't want to be friends with you guys," Roxxy said before Roxés could even open her mouth to say something. "Now, buzz off." Roxés desperately wanted to say a comeback of some sort, but she decided not to. But, it looked like it was a lost cause, so she turned right around, and started heading back. She suddenly heard Roxxy give a little laugh, and turned around, annoyed. She could see why Shixam had been irritated.

"Don't laugh at me behind my back," Roxés said resolutely. "I'm serious, Roxxy. I was just trying to nice, but I don't have to be nice. So don't tick me off."

"It's a free country," Roxxy gave a disdainful smirk. "I can do whatever I want. Even if it is laughing at you."

"Roxxy, I mean it-"

"We're not fighting are we?" Aldis said, suddenly cutting in out of nowhere. Roxés was seriously starting to get creeped out at how he was popping up in the most "convenient" places.

"Of course not," Roxxy gave Aldis a wide smile, and Roxés glared at her.

"Suck up," Roxés muttered, walking away.

"No fighting, alright?" Aldis called after her.

"What was that about?" Matrix asked as Roxés returned to the table.

"Shixam is right," Roxés frowned, sitting down at the table. "Roxxy is a jerk."

"Want me to try to talk to her?" Soriox asked.

"You'd better not, Sori," Shixam warned him. "She's tough. Real tough."

"Well, okay," Soriox shrugged. "Oh, Matrix. Now that you're out of the hospital, will you show us your power?"

"Oh, yeah," Roxas nodded. "You said you'd show us once you were out."

"Can I eat my pancakes, first?" Matrix asked, stabbing a piece of pancake onto his fork and waving it around a bit. "You don't want me passing out from malnutrition, do you?"

"Of course not," Caelix shook her head.

"Just as I thought," Matrix nodded. "Now, I'm going to go get some more pancakes." Matrix stood up, striding happily back over to the food buffet.

"…This is going to take forever, isn't it?" Xavier asked after a pause.

"Probably," Zexion sighed, opening his book.

"How come we needed to come in here?" Shixam asked as Matrix led them back into his old medical room. "There's nothing here."

"But there's a T.V," Matrix said, turning to her for a moment.

"We need a T.V?" Roxés questioned.

"Uh-huh," Matrix nodded, stopping next to the table where the T.V. sat. Everyone else stood and watched him, wondering what he was going to do.

"Alright," Matrix grinned, lifting a hand. "Now, watch this!" He placed his hand onto the T.V, a smug smile on his face. He waited for some sort of "ooh"-ing and "aah"-ing from the others, but when he heard nothing, he looked over at them.

"…Are you going to do something?" Demyx asked.

"Huh? I am doing something. Look!" Matrix motioned at the T.V. with his other hand. "It's spazzing out, isn't it?"

"No, not really," Axel shook his head. Matrix looked at the T.V, only to realize that nothing was happening.

"Huh?" he removed his hand questioningly. "H-Hang on, let me try again." He put his hand back onto the T.V, hoping that something would happen. The T.V. screen didn't even flicker. And the rest of the group didn't seem very impressed.

"Didn't you say that you found out what your power was?" Zexion asked. "Can't you just tell us instead of trying to show us?"

"I mean…it worked last night," Matrix said, pulling his hand off of the T.V. again. "You should have seen it! Every single electronic thing that I touched went absolutely crazy!"

"So, your power is tech stuff?" Shixam asked. "Huh. That's pretty cool."

"I just wish that I could show you guys, now…" Matrix tapped the T.V. a few more times, still not getting any result. "Well, maybe it's like how…how when you're shooting hoops alone, you do it just fine, but when you call your friends over to watch, you always miss. That sorta thing."

"It's okay, you can show us some other time," Soriox grinned.

"Oh, and by the way…" Axel glanced around quickly to make sure that they were alone. "Before, you said that you knew the name of the program that the scientists are running. What's it called?"

"It's…uh…" Matrix tried to remember. "Oh, right. On the computer, it was called the "Human Weapon Program". Got any idea what that could mean, anyone?"

"It seems pretty obvious to me," Zexion said after thinking for a moment. "I mean, think about it. We were brought here, without having any idea why. We were all given the same injection, and all of a sudden, we're starting to develop strange powers. And now, we find out that this thing is called the "Human Weapon Program". I think that these scientists are planning on developing our abilities to the point where they could be used in combat."

"You think so?" Demyx asked, surprised. "But what kind of combat would they need us for?"

"There are plenty of wars going on," Xavier replied in Zexion's stead. "That could be why they need us."

"Wars? I don't want to fight in a war," Soriox hugged Michi tighter. "People get hurt in wars."

"People don't just get hurt in wars. People die in wars," Roxas said. "And maybe they think that just because we can do special stuff that we're invincible."

"Oh, come on," Matrix cut in. "It's not like we're bullet proof. If they sent us out there, we'd die in just about two seconds. It has to be something else that they want us for."

"I'm still sticking with my theory," Zexion shrugged.

"Hey, let's go before we get caught in here without a scientist with us," Saxasra said, going towards the door.

"We have to go tell Xaldin what we found out anyway," Xavier agreed. "Let's go find him."

It was later that evening when, in the middle of the night, Xavier once again was woken up by someone moving around in their room.

"What are you doing this time?" he groaned, looking at the clock after seeing Matrix pulling on a hoodie.

"I'm going to go get my skateboard," Matrix told him.

"Is that really all you're doing?" Xavier asked, suspicious.

"Yeah, yeah, it's all I'm doing," Matrix said. "Don't worry."

"Won't you get in trouble if you go outside, though?" came another voice. The two of them turned, seeing that Soriox was awake.

"I won't get in trouble if I tell them what I'm doing," Matrix shrugged. "What could happen, right?" Matrix pulled his hood up, then walked out of the room.

"If he sets off the alarm again, I'm going to kill him," Xavier mumbled, trying to fall back to sleep.

Matrix was surprised by how chilly it felt when he went outside. He shut the door quietly, then started walking around the perimeter of the building, looking to see if he could find his skateboard. As he walked, he observed the large wall surrounding the facilities. It was tall, and completely made of metal. He wandered over to it at one point, kicking it with his foot and listening to the sound it made.

"Hollow," he murmured to himself as he continued along, still searching. Finally, after a while of searching, he found just what he was looking for. He grinned, picking up his skateboard, and was happy to see that it was still in one piece, even after being chucked out the window. He made his way back to the door, but was annoyed to find that it had locked itself. He would have to find another way in, so he started on his way along the building again.

"Couldn't you have come in another way?" Xavier yawned, opening up the window to the bedroom so that Matrix could climb in.

"Nope, the door locked itself," Matrix replied. "But, I found my skateboard!" He tugged off his hoodie with a little difficulty, climbed up the ladder to the top bunk bed, and burrowed under the covers, giving a quick "Good night!" Xavier scratched his head a bit, starting to regret being put in the same room as Matrix. But, he knew that he would have to put up with it now, so he walked back over to his bed, lying down, and tried to get some sleep. Their work would begin again in the morning.


End file.
